Linee goes to check on the Harpies in the morning. She can see the Harpies stir as she enters. Linee wakes Speaker up and says to her “Speaker I wanted to let you know what we want to do with Grandma’s body.”
Speaker says “What?”
Linee says “We want to burn it. Burn it to ash, you know like dust in the wind.”
Speaker immediately turns to the flock and starts speaking to them. All the Harpies start squawking back in joy.
Linee says to Speaker “What’s going on?”
Speaker says “Yes! Do it! She will join the Sky Queen’s wind and be a part of it.”
Linee says “Sky Queen?”
Speaker says “It is said that she creates the winds we fly on with the flaps of her mighty wings.” Linee realizes that the Sky Queen is probably the Harpies’ God.
It takes about a day for Glee to make all the preparation for the funeral pyre. Everyone helps the Harpies attend. Even Glato got Boar Killer to come with her chick.
Glee stands next to the pyre with a torch at the ready along with Linee and their daughters. Grandma’s body is still warped up as it sits on the pyre. Glee gives a speech, saying “I didn’t know Grandma for very long. But when John allowed us to talk that one time. I felt like I knew we would be friends. She was a proud Grandma and watched over her flock. She let us come into her home and we let her in ours. My people worked the fields as much as her flock did in their own way. So we don’t just mourn a death, but celebrate a life. A life that saw a new era for her flock and her kind. Even now she bears witness to us working together to honor her.” Glee puts his torch in the pyre. Then Linee puts hers in at another spot and then their daughters put theirs in as well.
Soon the fire spreads and engulfs Grandma’s body. Everyone watches the smoke rise in the air. Linee even thinks she sees Grandma’s silhouette rising in the smoke at a point.
Glee has what’s left of Grandma’s remains buried at the bottom of the cliff face right under the crevice with a marker for everyone to know.
Soon runners from the other farms are bringing food for the Harpies to help with their recovery.
Glee and his family meet with the healers at the temporary camp they set up on his farm while they tend to the Harpies. The head healer says to him “I hope that this doesn’t come off as rude at this time. But how do you plan on paying us.”
Glee says “It is, and we are trying to come up with something. I am hesitant to be indebted to you on behalf of the Harpies. But I’m not sure if the harpies would understand. I know you take trade goods in exchange for money sometimes. But I don’t know what the Harpies have to trade with you.”
Linee says “One moment please” and hurries off. She soon comes back with one of her new pillows and gives it to the head healer saying “Feel this.”
The head header says “What is this stuffed with?”
Linee says “Harpy hatchling down. A few of your people asked me why we were collecting the feathers from the chicks. Now you know.”
The healers pass the pillow around. One says to the others “our pillows aren’t as soft as this one. We could use these at the main house to rest our heads.”
The head healer says “We will take five of them!”
Glee says “Three!”
The head healer says “Five!”
Linee says “Three now and one more after the Harpies are able to fly again. That’s half my lot. I’m limited on my supply of materials due to how many chicks the Harpies have right now. I may throw in an extra one if the harpies recover quickly.”
The head healer says “Deal!”
After a few days, some of the Harpies start to get antsy and want to leave. Glee tells Speaker to tell the other Harpies “If they can climb to my roof and take off from there, they can go home.” Several Harpies try to climb the net attached to his house, only to tire halfway up and come back down. The healers check the Harpies over to make sure they didn’t hurt themselves in the process.
Each day the Harpies try to climb up. Even the elder chicks try to get the Harpies to fly again. The chicks get antsy and start trying to climb as well. Speaker says to Linee after she pulled a chick down before it got too high “Chicks want to fly. It is their blood to fly.”
Linee says “I fear for them to try without their mothers to help.”
Speaker says “Elder chicks can do it.”
Soon the family takes the chicks back to the Harpy nesting sight and the mothers are brought just below the cliff by the healers so they can see their chicks try to fly. Linee and her daughters are keeping the chicks away from the edge and let the New Mother’s chick toss the chick off while Elder Mother’s chick acts as chase and helps the chick land. Glee is watching the chicks afterward and sees a mother trying to climb the rock face with her chick on her back. Glee tries to stop them, but then he sees the mother having no problems and makes it to the top. She then launches from there and flies without a problem.
Glee, Linee, and Glato exchange looks. They then look at the farmhouse and realizes that it is too steep for the Harpies to climb up.
Glee has the net’s bottom moved out away from the building. The Harpies can climb and launch without a problem.
Soon only Elder Mother, New Mother, and their chicks remain. Linee says to her daughters “Okay time to say goodbye.”
The girls all say in unions “Aw Mom, Please” as they hold on to the young Harpies.
Both of the Chicks say “Mama” to Linee.
Linee turns to the Harpy mothers and says to them “You deal with your children!” then walks away.
The two Harpies didn’t understand Linee, but understood what was implied, call to their chicks.
The two young Harpies say goodbye and leave with their mothers.
Linee and her daughters go up to check on the Harpies later in the week. They see two harpies approach Grandma’s rock cropping. Linee can sense a fight is about to break out between them when Elder Mother lands almost on top of them and knocks them to the ground. She screams at them and forces them back and away from Grandma’s rock cropping. The two harpies lower themselves taking a submissive posture to Elder Mother. Soon the other harpies lower themselves down while still in their nest. Linee and her daughters sense what is happening and blow to Elder Mother.
Elder Mother looks at the rock cropping and climbs up on it and starts calling to the Harpies while fanning her wings. The Harpies call back to signal she is the new leader of the flock.